Tuesday, August 25, 2015

LOVE, DEFINED by @LeilaTualla

In their final summer before graduating college, three childhood friends expect an uncomplicated transition to adulthood…but learn they all still have some growing up to do.

Alex Makapulo is facing a crisis of faith.

Raised a Catholic, Alex is considering becoming a member of her best friend Jack Page’s church—against her family’s wishes—but she can’t quite take the final step of baptism. Jack loves Alex and doesn’t understand her hesitation, and Alex wonders if Jack’s love is a blessing or a distraction to test her religious conviction.

Lori Hanson embarks on the trip of a lifetime.

For her twenty-second birthday, Lori’s grandfather presents her with a summer vacation in England. While preparing for her adventure, she meets British musician Colin Watson online and quickly falls for him. They plan to hook up when she lands in London, but her grandfather forbids it. Due to complicated family dynamics, Lori must regretfully comply with his wishes, though she vows never to forgive him.

Andy Taylor is looking for love in all the wrong places.

When Andy runs into an old crush, she decides she wants a more meaningful relationship with sexy Miles Webber. But when she confides in Alex, her friend warns her Miles only wants her for sex. Andy becomes angry and devises a reckless plan to distract Alex’s attention from her relationship. Things don’t go quite as she expected, though, and Andy is left facing a crushing moral dilemma.

As the summer unfolds, three young women learn love and faith go hand in hand, not everything is black and white, and sometimes in a fast-paced world you have to slow down, breathe a little, and find your own definition of love.

Alex
walked in carrying groceries. “Still haven’t gotten through?” She stopped in
front of her and arched an eyebrow when she saw a glass on the coffee table. It
was a martini glass with an olive swimming in clear liquid. “Is that what I
think it is?”

Andy
stifled a groan. Alex with her rules of no-alcohol in the house was backed by
the equally uptight owner, Lori. She figured that with Lori gone and Alex
spending more time with Jack that she could get away with breaking a few rules.

“What
do you think it is?” She asked sweetly. She lifted the glass and sipped,
batting her eyelash at her.

“Alcohol,”
Came the curt reply.

She
lifted a shoulder before downing the rest of the drink. The warm liquid hitting
her empty stomach. “It’s a martini. Want one?”

“No
thanks, dear,” Alex replied with the same false saccharine tone, “I typically
try not to get wasted before breakfast.” She finally ventured into the kitchen
to put up her groceries. Andy followed and watched her careful put everything
away.

“Alex,”
she wailed, looking at the packaged sugars and processed carbs in front of her.
“I told you I’m on a diet.” Her stomach lurched at the peanut butter and the
jelly Alex was now putting up.

Alex
frowned. “So? I’m not on your no carb, no sugar, alcohol only diet, thank you
very much!” She put some goldfish crackers, Milano cookies and popcorn in the
pantry. “The alcohol isn’t really helping you. It has calories, you know.”

“Beer
has calories, but liquor doesn’t. What did you think of Miles?” She asked,
trying to take her mind off of the foods she couldn’t have and equally cursing
Alex for her genetics.

“Have
you ever seen a skinny alcoholic? I took a nutrition class and one gram of
alcohol equals seven calories. The fact that you’re not sleeping also damages
your metabolism, thus causing weight gain,” she paused and regarded Andy. “I
already told you what I thought of Miles. He’s a pothead and there’s something
about him I don’t like.”

Andy
stood in tiptoes to open a cabinet on top of the refrigerator. She reached and
pulled her vodka bottle down, immediately scrutinizing the bottle. She frowned
at the nutrition label and smiled sheepishly, “I don’t know how many grams are
in a drink.”

She
caught a package of red and white out of the corner of her eye. “Hey, you said
you’d stop drinking coke!”

Alex
opened the fridge door, causing Andy to take a step back. She put the 12 pack
into the fridge and closed it. She took the vodka bottle from Andy and tried to
read the label.

“And
he’s not a pothead,” Andy paused, “anymore. He just drinks occasionally.”

Alex
widened her eyes at her and gave her back her bottle. “You know when I say
these comments to you, sometimes they’re a joke. I don’t expect them to be real
at all.”

She
turned and finished putting up the rest of her groceries. “Are you sure you’re
alright hanging out with these alcoholics who used to be druggies?”

“They
are not alcoholics!” She pointed out. Andy hated these conversations. Anything
she told them about, the self-righteous Alex would bombard her with insults and
lecture her about hanging out with the ‘wrong crowd.’ You would think she still
lived with her parents with all these rules she was supposedly breaking. She
tuned out Alex who had turned back around to face her, opening and closing her
mouth like a fish.

“Are
you listening to me?” Alex demanded, shaking her briefly out of her thoughts.
She just nodded, but didn’t reply. She was tired of explaining herself. Isn’t it a normal rite of passage for young
twenty-something college girls to lose their good girl persona and just have
fun, be wild and free? She blinked when Alex suddenly swung around and
marched down to her room.

“What?”

She
turned when she reached her door. “I don’t like talking to someone who is
clearly not paying attention to me!”

Andy
rolled her eyes, “I’m sorry, but I’ve heard it all before, Alex. You give me
the same speech practically every weekend.”
And each one with more gusto than the last. “I just asked what you thought
of Miles.”

“And
I answered. You already know how I feel about him. You’ve been asking me for
days now. No, I don’t think he’s right for you or that he’s changed. He’s still
using you just like last time.”

“No,
this time, it’s different.” The words sounded hollow, and she knew it. She
needed to sit down and have another drink. She turned around and sat on the
couch, opening the vodka bottle and pouring some into her martini glass.

“Have
you two been on a date, yet?” Alex sat beside her, wrinkling her face as she
watched Andy drink the contents. “And I don’t mean meeting at the bar, or his
house or going to a party type of date. I mean having dinner and movie type of
date.”

She
shifted trying to look causal, but the hesitation already answered Alex’s
question. “Well, that type of dating is out dated, anyway.” She flipped her
blonde locks behind her back. “I’m already in a relationship with him and we
don’t need to go on a date because we’re already dating.” I think.

Alex
narrowed her eyes at her. “Do you know how delusional you sound right now?”

“We
can’t all pray and have the perfect guy right there waiting for us the entire
time. Most of us have to go find them on our own!” Andy managed to spat out.
“Well maybe that’s something you need, Andy.” Her voice softened. “Why don’t you pray about the perfect guy? You are worth it and this guy isn’t worthy of you.”

- ABOUT THE AUTHOR -

LEILA TUALLA

Leila Tualla is a Christian blogger and writer. She blogs at www.tuallaleila.blogspot.com and writes about her misadventures in faith, in motherhood, and whatever else inspires her. She holds a membership to the American Christian Fiction Writer. Her current project is a YA Christian Romance.